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Long Beach Sprint Nationals, 2010

Story by: Mike Guardalabene
Photos by: Mike Guardalabene, Mary Beth Trama, and guest photographer Juan Castro

Selected photos appear below. I have over 400 photos of this event posted on my photo website, Mikegeephotos.com, make sure to check them out.


Summer in Southern California again and along with that comes the SCSC circle sprint boat races to Long Beach Marine Stadium. One of the premier classes in sprint ...

Puddingstone 2010

Story by: Mike Guardalabene
Photos by: Mary Beth Trama and Mike Guardalabene

Link to our photos for Puddingstone 2010
Less than half the photos appear below so please visit this link to see them all.

“Second Annual Puddingstone Sprint Boat Races”

I wrote a year ago about the inaugural Puddingstone Race, put on by the SBRA (Speed Boat Racing Association). It was a great event. This year they returned for the ...

Two Galleries of photos here including 255 pictures


Parker the day after Thanksgiving; not too many places in the country I’d rather be. Perfect weather and conditions this year made for a great two days of racing action. The Thanksgiving Regatta put on each year by the Southern California Speedboat Club has a decades long history. It is the first race of the SCSC 2010 season even though oddly, it takes place at the end of 2009. This year with the lagging economy certain ...

Long Beach, California, mid August, the SCSC Sprint Nationals…

The Long Beach Race is always an exciting event with the tight 2-buoy turns and relatively short course by comparison to the recent Burley event’s very wide turns and long course. That’s not to say that Burley isn’t exciting as it certainly is. It is just a different racing style on the tight course at Long Beach Marine Stadium.

The GN’s showed up in force at Long Beach with ...

Each June, the Classic V-Drive Club of America hosts a boat show at Bass Lake at the Pines Resort. You couldn’t ask for a more picturesque little venue for a bunch of true v-drivers to gather, share stories, show off their boats, and just generally have a good time. Having never been to Bass Lake before myself, I looked forward to attending the event even if it was just with a camera and no boat in tow. With Bass Lake being just a few miles from the entrance to Yosemite, the vacation possibilities ...

The Idaho Regatta, Burley, Idaho, 2009

It’s late June, the weather’s warm. What better time for a road trip to Idaho? From Southern California the trip is around twelve hours, give or take a bit. We got a late start and ended up arriving around 2 AM Friday. There are several routes to Burley and the one I prefer is Highway 93 northbound through eastern Nevada. From outside Vegas, 93 passes through small towns like Caliente, Ely, and Wells in route to Twin Falls, Idaho. ...

The Lake Irvine V-Drive Regatta has become an annual event produced by Dave Noyes who manages Lake Irvine. The lake is nestled in the hills just to the east of Orange and to the north of Irvine, California. Primarily a water storage facility for crop irrigation, it is also a popular fishing destination for Southern Californians. Dave opens the lake up for boat testing during the week and hosts events like the V-Drive Regatta a few times a year. This year the Regatta was held around on the back ...

Needles California... It’s one of the hottest places on the planet in summer and probably was one of the most unlikely for a boat / car show of any magnitude to ever be held. Against all odds after trying for many years, Billy Berkenheger organized and convinced the City of Needles to host this event at their freshly updated and improved Jack Smith Park in late February. Billy is known as Billy-B on the pb forums and is a renowned custom painter of boats, cars, and race vehicles. Billy sold ...

Springtime in Parker, Arizona. One hundred degree days and clear skies provided the SCSC “Spring Classic” at the Bluewater Resort with ideal conditions for a circle race. The turnout was good considering the recession, with lots of boats in attendance and close to full fields in most of the classes.

I arrived Saturday morning just in time to see the Pro-Stock boats battle it out in the qualifying heats. Dave Rankin in his SS/PS-80 “Wild Child”, would dominate ...

Boat Racing returns to Puddingstone

The site: Puddingstone Lake, or more technically known as Frank G Bonelli Park, located in the heart of Southern California in a small town called San Dimas. Puddingstone had not seen circle boat racing on its waters for 17 years. That all changed on March 28th and 29th. The new SBRA (Speed Boat Racing Association), formed by Gordon Jennings, Ron Hill, Scott Schatz, and Steve Sequeria, held its inaugural race which was host to dozens of race ...

Thunder In The Channel

It was over a decade since professional drag boat racing had graced the waters of Lake Elsinore California. That all changed on Saturday, March 21st when the NJBA brought out just under one hundred dragboats and enticed over two thousand fans to the shores of Lake Elsinore.

We arrived around 9 AM Saturday to a crowded parking lot and a long line of fans. Racing was already underway. I would learn later from the NJBA officials that this was by ...

Ah, Thanksgiving in Parker, AZ. Can it get much better than this? Well I can envision a few tropical islands perhaps. Actually it was Thanksgiving in Havasu for me this year with my brother. Very enjoyable time spent. And a cheap hotel to boot, which was helpful after covering the Phoenix IHBA race the prior weekend. After driving out from So Cal Thursday afternoon, we stopped at Bluewater, the race site, on the way to Havasu. It had rained pretty heavy the night before so the pit area was ...